Dogs can bring companionship, fun, and unconditional love to their owners. To reciprocate for all of the joy that a dog adds to life, dog owners need to be educated about and fully prepared for responsible ownership and care. There’s a lot to know when you’re a dog owner, and this comprehensive guide serves as the ultimate reference for owners at all stages of their dogs’ lives.Inside The Ultimate Guide to Dog Care:•A thorough discussion on what you need to consider before you decide to add a dog to your family•Sources from where you can obtain a healthy, sound puppy or adult dog•Checklists and charts to help you buy all of the equipment and supplies you will need before your dog comes home•How to introduce your new dog to your home, other family members, other dogs, and strangers•The importance of socialization to a dog’s overall personality and confidence•Complete nutrition for puppies, adults, and senior dogs•How to groom different coat types and the tools you will need•Making sure that your dog gets enough exercise for his body and mind, with special sections on organized dog sports and pet-assisted therapy work•Keeping your dog safe at home and everywhere you go•Raising a polite canine member of society through reward-based training, communication, and solutions to common problems•Routine health checks, dealing with parasites, and recognizing and treating illness and injury, with a chapter on care of the older dog
With more and more city dwellers and suburbanites embracing the notion of getting back to basics and living simpler, more rustic lives, it’s no surprise that the popularity of backyard chicken keeping has skyrocketed in recent years. Whether for enjoyment as pets or for the convenience of farm-fresh eggs right outside your door, chicken keeping can be an easy and fun step on the road to more sustainable, ecologically friendly living.Written by Kristina Mercedes Urquhart, The Suburban Chicken shares the author’s knowledge on general chicken husbandry, profiles of 20 suitable breeds for suburban living, how to provide your birds with optimal accommodations, and the healthcare needs of chickens, among other important topics about which prospective chicken owners should be familiar.INSIDE SUBURBAN CHICKEN:•The benefits and enjoyment of keeping chickens as pets.•Considerations for would-be chicken keepers, including local ordinances, space requirements, initial and ongoing expenses, and preparing the home and family.•Favorite standard-size, bantam, and egg-laying breeds for metropolitan and family living.•Hatching eggs and raising chicks.•Coop styles and descriptions of all equipment that a budding chicken keeper needs, as well as a chapter dedicated to keeping chickens safe from predators. •Preventive care and optimal diets for healthy, hardy birds. •Raising chickens for eggs: the science behind egg production, how to properly handle and store fresh eggs, and the differences between store-bought and homegrown eggs, as well as some exciting recipes for your bounty.
The tides of dog ownership are changing, and thanks to Hollywood A-Listers like George Clooney and Sandra Bullock and music icons like Justin Bieber and Taylor Swift, animal rescue has become as fashionable as the latest Valentino or Armani. Millions of ordinary Americans—heroes one and all—have opened their hearts and homes to rescue dogs, and fewer abandoned pets are euthanized in the U.S. than ever before. And still, a look at HSUS statistics reminds us how far we have to go: an estimated three to four million pets are euthanized annually, a very significant improvement from the 1980s when the number was closer to sixteen million.To keep America’s adoption trend moving forward and to guarantee that rescued dogs stay in their new forever homes, Tracy Libby’s The Rescue Dog Problem Solver seeks to make the story of every adopted dog a predestined success. While most dogs wind up in shelters due to no fault of their own, many rescue dogs develop unwanted behaviors while living with their previous owners. To assure their success with their adopted dogs, rescuers must be prepared to handle and confidently resolve behavioral problems that arise through proven positive-training methods. This eye-opening problem-solving guide, filled with empowering stories of rescued dogs that defied the odds, is dedicated to the success of every rescuer and his happy, health companion dog.INSIDE TITLE OF BOOK50 ways rescuers can overcome potential challenges with their adoptive dogs200 training and behavior tips for a well-mannered dog25 secrets to unraveling common behavior issues, from house-soiling and escaping the yard to biting, barking, and hyperactivityA dozen heartwarming stories of real-life rescue dogs and their adoptive parentsCountless ways dog lovers can raise awareness about animal rescue and responsible pet ownership in their communities
Each book in the series provides advice about how to locate a healthy, sound puppy from a reputable source and how to properly raise and care for an adorable companion dog.
This illustrated guide describes the many ways that coarse fish species depend upon the diversity of habitats in river systems and considers how this dependence changes throughout the stages of their lives – from spawning and eggs, through to the juvenile and adult stages- and with changing seasons and river conditions. This knowledge is important if we are to understand the many population bottlenecks and the variety of coarse fish species that have resulted from historic changes to our rivers. It is also important if we are to manage rivers positively to protect and improve the vitality of coarse fisheries – a process that will also benefit the wider wildlife community with which coarse fish are interdependent.
The agrarian tradition runs as an undercurrent through the entire history of literature, carrying the age-old wisdom that the necessary access of independent farmers to their own land both requires the responsibility of good stewardship and provides the foundation for a thriving civilization. At the turn of the last century, when farming first began to face the most rapid and extensive series of changes that industrialization would bring, the most compelling and humane voice representing the agrarian tradition came from the botanist, farmer, philosopher, and public intellectual Liberty Hyde Bailey. In 1915, Bailey’s environmental manifesto, The Holy Earth, addressed the industrialization of society by utilizing the full range of human vocabulary to assert that the earth’s processes and products, because they form the governing conditions of human life, should therefore be understood not first as economic, but as divine. To grasp the extent of human responsibility for the earth, Bailey called for “a new hold” that society must take to develop a “morals of land management,” which would later inspire Aldo Leopold’s “land ethic” and several generations of agrarian voices. This message of responsible land stewardship has never been as timely as now.
Described as “a writer in the tradition of Henry David Thoreau, John Muir, and other self-educated seers” by the San Francisco Chronicle, David Rains Wallace turns his attention to one of the most distinctive corners of California: the San Francisco Bay Area. Weaving a complex and engaging story of the Bay Area from personal, historical, and environmental threads, Wallace’s exploration of the natural world takes readers on a fascinating tour through the region: from Point Reyes National Park, where an abandoned campfire and an invasion of Douglas fir trees combusted into a dangerous wildfire, to Oakland’s Lake Merritt, a surprising site amid skyscrapers for some of the best local bird-watching; from the majestic Diablo Range near San Jose, where conservationists fight against land developers to preserve species like mountain lions and golden eagles, to the Golden Gate itself, the iconic bridge that—geologically speaking—leads not to gold but to serpentine. Each essay explores a different place throughout the four corners of the Bay Area, uncovering the flora and fauna that make each so extraordinary.With a naturalist’s eye, a penchant for local history, and an obvious passion for the subject, Wallace’s new collection is among the first nature writing dedicated entirely to the Bay Area. Informative, engrossing, and exquisitely described, Mountains and Marshes affords unexpected yet familiar views of a beloved region that, even amidst centuries of growth and change, is as dynamic as it is timeless.
Ben Shippers doesn’t have much use for school, friends, or pretty much anyone except his smartass sister, but he does harbor a secret passion: Trash Mountain, the central feature of the noxious landfill next to his house, the fumes from which have made his sister ill. After a botched attempt to destroy Trash Mountain with a homemade firebomb, Ben begins a years-long infiltration operation that leads him to drop out of school to work alongside homeless trash-pickers, and then, eventually, intern at the very place he meant to destroy. Ben’s boss there, a charismatic would-be titan of sanitation, shows Ben the intricate moralities of the trash industry, forcing him to choose between monetary stability and his environmental principles. With dark humor, <i><b>Trash Mountain</i></b> reflects on life in small southern cities in decline and an adolescent’s search for fundamental values without responsible adults to lead the way.
“Horses are a lot like people,” says renowned horseman Mark Rashid. “When there are gaps in understanding, confusion, and thus frustration, worry, and even anger are sure to follow.” Horses often grow up with these “gaps” in their training and education. When this happens, it can be difficult for the horse to be a willing partner to a human, and he may need to be “restarted”—that is, given a second chance to learn what is expected of him and how he can find a place where he is confident and comfortable both beside a handler and beneath a rider.In order to restart a horse successfully, we need to know how to retrace the steps the horse’s education has taken and find the path missed the first time around. In this book, the first of the expansive library of books penned by Rashid to include full-color photographs, readers are guided through practical steps for restarting horses, using Rashid’s simple yet impactful concepts derived from years of study of martial arts. We walk along with him as he proceeds with the quiet sorting of experience that provides the insight we need to give any horse the new beginning he deserves.